The age at onset of LRRK2 p.Gly2019Ser Parkinson's disease across ancestries and countries of origin

Theresa Lüth; Björn-Hergen Laabs; Sebastian Sendel; Inke R König; Amke Caliebe; Alastair J Noyce; Laurel A Screven; Soraya Bardien; Matthew Farrer; Faycel Hentati; Christine Klein; Samia Ben Sassi; Joanne Trinh; Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2)

doi:10.1101/2025.06.04.25327685

The age at onset of LRRK2 p.Gly2019Ser Parkinson's disease across ancestries and countries of origin

medRxiv [Preprint]. 2025 Jun 9:2025.06.04.25327685. doi: 10.1101/2025.06.04.25327685.

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Neurogenetics, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.
² Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.
³ Institute of Medical Informatics and Statistics, Kiel University and University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany.
⁴ Centre for Preventive Neurology, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom.
⁵ National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁶ Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University and South African Medical Research Council/Stellenbosch University Genomics of Brain Disorders Research Unit, Cape Town, South Africa.
⁷ Department of Neurology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
⁸ Service de Neurologie, Institut National de Neurologie, La Rabta, Tunis, Tunisia.
⁹ Faculty of Medicine of Tunis, 1006, Tunisia.
¹⁰ Neurology's Department, Mongi Ben Hmida National Institute of Neurology, Tunis, Tunisia.

Abstract

Objectives: The LRRK2 p.Gly2019Ser pathogenic variant has reduced penetrance and presents a wide range of age at onset (AAO) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). We aim to elucidate differences in the cumulative incidence of LRRK2 p.Gly2019Ser-related PD (LRRK2-PD) between ancestries and countries.

Methods: We included N=922 unrelated LRRK2 p.Gly2019Ser variant carriers (affected: N=762, unaffected: N=160) from the Global Parkinson's Genetics Program (GP2) in addition to cohorts recruited from the Israeli Ashkenazi Jewish and Tunisian Arab-Berber population. The p.Gly2019Ser variant was present in five ancestries: Ashkenazi Jewish (N=534), North African (N=223), European (N=132), Middle Eastern (N=19) and Latino and Indigenous people of the Americas (N=14). In addition to ancestry derived from the genetic data, we assessed the country of origin in our analysis. The Cox proportional-hazards model and Kaplan-Meier analysis were applied to examine differences in cumulative incidence. All analyses were adjusted for biological sex, and the outcome variable was AAO, including affected and unaffected variant carriers with right censoring for affection status, and all analysis were exploratory.

Results: The median AAO of LRRK2-PD was five years younger in the North African (HR=1.48, 95% CI: 1.18-1.86, p=7.0×10^-4) compared to the European ancestry group. In contrast, the median AAO was five years older in the Ashkenazi Jewish (HR=0.61, 95% CI: 0.50-0.75, p=4.0×10^-6) compared to the European ancestry group. Additionally, patients from Israel (HR=1.59, 95% CI: 1.30-1.39, p=4.0×10^-6) and Tunisia (HR=2.57, 95% CI: 2.16-3.06, p<2.0×10^-16) had a median 5-year and 10-year younger AAO compared to patients from the USA, respectively. Lastly, when focusing only on individuals with an Ashkenazi Jewish background, patients from Israel still had a younger AAO than those from the USA (HR=1.82, 95% CI: 1.48-2.24, p=1.5×10^-8). Analogously, assessing only patients from the USA, the Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry group still had an older AAO than the European ancestry group (HR=0.51, 95% CI: 0.39-0.67, p=1.3×10^-6).

Discussion: Our results provide evidence that a person's genetic ancestry and country of origin are associated with the AAO of LRRK2-PD. This highlights the potential impact of both genetic and environmental factors on LRRK2-PD AAO.

Publication types

Preprint